


Once Upon A Time

by gothambeat



Category: Batman (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Gen, I guess it's a crack ship?, One Shot, crack ship, fairy tale, mia dearden/zachary zatara, spoilers in the tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 07:38:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13699923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothambeat/pseuds/gothambeat
Summary: Gotham gets put under a spell. Stephanie, Jason and Mia have to work together to break it. (Based on the picture form the Stephanie Brown Batgirl series. This is an old drabble-type writing I'm posting here)





	Once Upon A Time

“Will you two hurry up?!”

The forest was getting dark and the two knuckleheads kept side-tracking. It was all well and good Stephanie freed both Jason and Mia before they had killed each other but not everyone had famous Gotham luck. 

“Calm your quiver,” Jason said between cursing. The brambles were getting thicker and sharper the deeper into the woods they got. He couldn’t squeeze through the thicket as easily as the girls. “Princess isn’t going anywhere.”

“But the others could be,” Steph said as she slashed at the plants with her broom handle. Her dress was ripped and fraying from the journey and where it once lit up like moonlight it started turning dull. She had ditched the glass slippers first thing after awakening from the spell but there was only so much of the fairy tales they could circumvent. “And I think I’m disappearing at midnight.”

“So keep up Riding Hood,” Mia yelled. Moonlight shone through a hole above them and she set to climb higher until finally the sky appeared and she could see the land all around them. The village still ablaze in flames from the chaos of the curse. The forest set in soon after that with echoes of screams from the dark woods. But Mia was looking for the stone castle in the dead of thorns and a lone tower glowing gold. That was their goal.

“Something’s coming,” Stephanie yelled from below them. “I think the wolf is getting closer. Jason doesn’t have much time.”

“I’m not getting eaten by a wolf,” he scoffed as Mia jumped down. He crossed his arms. “But we are at a wall and whatever’s on our tail sounds bad.”

“Cindy and I can push on,” Mia said, pulling at the vest. She hated these costumes. They were strange and constricting. At least she got a tale that was archer-friendly. She hated to think what would’ve happened had she ended up like Stephanie with ten pounds of dress to carry. 

“I’m not going to leave Jason here alone against the Queen,” Steph said.

“Don’t worry about me,” he barked. The red of his cloak was bright in the moonlight but he was far from the street vigilante. He looked down right innocent, younger, ready to be tricked and devoured by the next passing predator. “Let’s just wake up sleeping pansy and get this curse off.”

A howl went up, putting everyone on edge. It was close. Mia drew an arrow, searching the shadows for an opening. Nothing moved and after a minute the planning began again.

“Stay with your boyfriend. I’ll get the prince.”

“Give us your bow.” Jason reached for it and Mia backed, bumping into a sharp thorn.

“Drop dead,” she said, clutching it tighter. The bow survived the curse, stayed with her. She wasn’t about to let it go.

“What are we going to fight that thing off with, a broomstick?” Jason held up his empty hands, reminding her she was the only one armed. “Or let Steph give the kiss.”

Mia scowled but let him pull the bow from her fingers. She could feel the pang of chaos echo through the land as another fairy tale broke. How much longer until the world started falling apart? It was good for curse breaking but not so much if they ended up face-to-face with a dragon without a weapon in sight.

“I’m a good shot,” Jason reassured, too happy to be armed again.

“Fine but don’t-” Mia was cut off as an arrow sliced her cheek. They all turned to see the brush burst in another volly. The hunter was quick but Jason got a shot off, causing her to change directions.

“Calm down Huntre-,” Jason yelled as she lunged, pinning him to the ground as Stephanie attempted to remove her without hurting her. The bow bounced against the ground as Huntress reloaded her crossbow. “Goddammit, get her .”

“I don’t remember a huntress in Red Riding Hood,” Mia yelled as she kicked only to receive a hard punch to the face. “But I could be mixing Grimm and Perrault.”

“You’re fucking Robin Hood, I don’t think we’re working from one anthology.” Jason grunted, reaching for the bow as Helena swatted Steph away.

“I’m not here for you, Princess, just for the wolf.” Her eyes were set on Jason.

“But he’s not a wolf,” Mia asked, throwing one of the fallen arrows. It struck her arm enough to slow her.

“Don’t hurt her,” Stephanie said.

“You’re right, I’ll just let her kill us first.” She threw a rock which Helena dodged.

“This is getting boring,” Jason said, hitting her beside the head. Helena fell to the ground with a grunt but almost instantly pulled herself up.

“The hell was that for?” she asked, rubbing the back of her head, glaring. “And what are you /wearing/?” She looked from Jason to Stephanie to Mia, then down at her own clothes and scowled.

Another howl echoed through the air and the moon hung higher. Stephanie looked pale as she gazed through the bramble at the sky. “We’re running out of time.”

“And that was closer,” Jason said, arming himself again and tossing the crossbow back to Helena. “New plan. We fight the big bad terror while Robin Hood awakens the Princess. Go!”

“Robin Hood?” Helena gave Mia a once-over. “Wow that’s lame. What are we facing exactly?”

“Make a bet,” Jason mumbled as Mia started to climb. She heard Steph claim ogre while Helena exclaimed “obviously it’s a wolf or it wouldn’t howl like that.”

Their conversation died as she got higher. The sky opened again and she began hopping from vine to vine. She could see the tower and feel the magic thick in the air the closer she got. A few hours of Knottingham and she was ready to curl up on the couch in Star City with a tub of ice cream. She wasn’t going to get there alone though.

She was a few steps from the castle wall when she heard the roar. Her own hard breathing must have deafened her to the wing flaps because the dragon was upon her in no time. It’s tale struck and she was suddenly falling down into the thorns. She reached out for a branch and hit it hard, knocking the breath from her lungs. She felt the air ionize and willed herself to her feet. She was running just as the first flames lit the base of the castle in flames.

“Last time I’m giving Jason anything,” she muttered as she outran the flames. The dragon stood between her and the castle. It roared again thrashing with it’s tail. Mia jumped as it sank below her and landed on top the scaled creature. Sprinting from the tail to the back of the creature, she tried to keep her footing as it thrashed and spun. It rose into the air with the strong beats of wings and Mia clung to the spine scales to keep from falling. Her side seared in pain, blood staining her glove when she felt the wound. The thorn was stuck fast from her first fall and screamed at her with every new movement. The tower rose to meet her and she could see inside the golden room through wing beats. He lay on the bed in the far side of the room, still like death.

The thought struck her in the middle of her fight that it was a fairy tale made real. If she failed here, her friends would be stuck alone to face the Queen of Fables with no magical help. Her death here was as permanent as death in her old world. The prince would be forced to sleep for a century alone, to be awakened by someone else’s kiss if he awoke at all. 

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

With clenched fists she braced as the dragon made another infuriated circle around the tower searching for its prey. When the window came back into view, Mia planted her feet and leaped.  
She rolled when she hit the ground. Inside the tower was calm, a peace hidden away from the world-breaking happening outside. Candles lit the walls and tapestries Mia could taste the magic in the air, thick and almost sweet as spells and fairy tales combined. She limped over to the bed where Sleeping Beauty lay.

Zach’s chest was still in sleep, without breath and life. His skin was pale and cold when she felt for a pulse. 

“Time to wake up,” she said, voice strained as the pain from her side flared again. “Zach, come on.” He didn’t stir and she let out a curse. “You know originally a kiss didn’t awaken the princess,” she muttered. Though originally the Princess slept a whole hundred years and woke up with two kids and a husband. She prayed that wasn’t the case. “You’re really going to make me go Disney on this aren’t you?” He was stubbornly silent.

_Fine_ , she thought, _there were far worse things anyway_. She leaned in, fear itching the edge of her thoughts as she pressed her lips to his. She needed him to wake up. Not just to finish the fairy tale or to help them fight magic with magic. She needed him to wake up because she needed him, in those moments of weakness, in a deep want for understanding, in the way that made her feel more than who she was. It was all the romantic fairy tale wedding feelings she’d never admit except in the rarest of moments.

She felt the spark and his lips turned from harden stone to soft flesh. His eyes fluttered open, finding her’s instantly as he drew his first breath.

“Mia,” he whispered, a smile tugging at his mouth. “What are you wearing.”

“See for yourself,” she said, pulling him into another kiss. He happily agreed to the second round, reaching to pull her closer and brushing her injured side. She flinched away from him, hoping no blood stained his hand.

“What on Earth is going on?” he asked, staring from her to the room to his own clothes. He reached out to help her but she shook her head. His hands floated there around her with touching, wishing to ease the pain.

“Queen of Fables,” Mia said, pointing to the window. He went to it, looking out. “Careful. There’s still a dragon out there.”

“Well that’s no good,” Zach mumbled, scratching his head before returning to her. “Nroht eb enog,” he said over her side and the pain eased a little. “Dnuow denaelc dna deganab. Naelc sdnah.” The bleeding stopped and he took her hands, helping her up. “That’s the best I can do for now. I take it asking you to stay put is out of the question?”

“Out of this solar system,” Mia said. “We don’t have a lot of time. Stephanie, Jason, and that crazy Huntress lady are in trouble.”

Zach squeezed Mia’s hand as the stood in front of the window.

“Robin Hood,” he said finally. “Oh how appropriate. A hell of a lot better than Sleeping Beauty." 

"Jason’s Red Riding Hood.” Zach’s smile returned.

“To grandmother’s house we go, then!”

**Author's Note:**

> I found this in my archives from years ago back when the Stephanie Brown Batgirl series was a thing and I thought I'd post it here. Most of the characters involved are the ones I used to interact with on RP twitter and I guess Mis/Zach are a strange ship. I would be surprised if people even remembered Mia.


End file.
